Pete Thamel explains why Steve Sarkisian, Lane Kiffin will not get Alabama coaching job

Alabama’s athletic department was thrust into frenzy Wednesday afternoon when Nick Saban announced his retirement after 17 years at the helm of the program, and Pete Thamel already has a list of potential new Crimson Tide coaches.

He and Rece Davis linked up for an emergency podcast Wednesday evening to break down who is and who isn’t a serious candidate for the Alabama job. In fact, Thamel mentions some names that may come as a surprise while dismissing a couple of the assumed front-runners.

To start, Thamel says that he does not expect an internal hire promoting anyone from the 2023 staff to head coach.

“There’s no internal candidate that’s expected to rise up, Rece. I think that’s fair to say, right,” Thamel reported. “Because when some of these guys have have left these mega jobs, like Urban Meyer at Ohio State or whatever, there’s a temptation to keep the infrastructure together, right, because the infrastructure is such a strong piece of everything.”

For one, Alabama often loses its best head coaching candidates off the staff.

“Now, I’m not saying somebody new would come in and blow up the infrastructure, but when you have strength coaches and recruiting and operations at the level that ‘Bama does. But I don’t think anyone — guys get jobs too fast from Alabama for there to be a logical internal candidate.”

Now for the juicy part.

Thamel on top Alabama candidates

“So I put out a list of of Dan Lanning, Kalen DeBoer, Dabo Swinney, James Franklin, Mike Norvell and Marcus Freeman. No order there,” Pete Thamel reported.

Below, you can find Thamel’s brief breakdown on the likelihood of Alabama landing those names in addition to Steve Sarkisian and Lane Kiffin.

Sarkisian: “I just don’t think Steve Sarkisian would leave Texas, so that’s why I did not put him on the list.”

Kiffin: “I have a hard time seeing Greg Byrne hiring Lane Kiffin, considering Lane Kiffin was fired from Alabama before before he left, and Greg Byrne is a very buttoned-up man and that would be a little bit of oil and water.

“So those are two names that have been thrown out that I did not use and those were the reasons why. Not saying they’re impossible, that’s just my intuition and assumption.”

Norvell: “If I had to it now, you know, I would think Norvell, only a $4 million buyout, would be heavily courted.”

Lanning: “I think Lanning, who obviously has time in that tree, would be someone. Now, Lanning has a $20 million buyout and he was definitive when A&M opened in his stance about not leaving Oregon anytime soon and where his family was.”

DeBoer: “It’s hard to say, the guy’s still devastated from the other night. His buyout is $12.5 million, something like that.”

Greg Byrne’s process, hiring background

While still unsure who is the leader in the clubhouse for the gig, Pete Thamel is pretty certain that the Crimson Tide athletic department is casting their net looking for a pretty big fish. Although, that brings its own challenges.

“So I assume (Byrne) will hire a big time headliner coach at Alabama, and to do that is going to be costly, changing out all the assistants is going to be costly, like, there’s a lot that’s going to flow in and out through there.

“But I would think that Greg Byrne, an accomplished lifelong son of an athletic director himself, has the challenge of his career ahead of him. I think it’s a very very difficult job, because what happens is… these guys become their own Industries at places like Penn State, Florida State, Alabama, Washington, like, you have to move 50-60 people in these jobs, right. So it’s just very tricky to do it quietly.”

However, Rece Davis notes that Greg Byrne has typically been quiet in action during coaching searches, and Byrne certainly isn’t caught hanging in the wind here.

“Greg has moved quietly in the past. I remember when he hired Rich Rodriguez at Arizona, he did so very quietly. His methodology is often to function as his own search committee, and no matter how much they want their incumbent coach to stay, they realize they better be ready so he’s not. I don’t think he’s gone into this caught flat-footed and all of a sudden trying to compile a list. Now, he’ll have to to execute the plan.”